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Monday, November 26, 2007

ROMAN Set For Boca's Return

The path finally looks set for Juan Roman RIQUELME to leave Villarreal and return to beloved boyhood club Boca Juniors.Villarreal have announced that they have reached an agreement with the Argentinean playmaker, who has been frozen out by manager Manuel PELLEGRINI all season.

Club directors Jose Manuel LLANEZA and Miguel PEREZ are due to meet with the Boca representatives in Buenos Aires on Wednesday in order to complete the deal.

ROMAN, 29, was initially loaned back to his former club midway through last season after falling out with PELLEGRINI, with Boca Juniors won the Copa Libertadores with him in the side.

However, on his return to Spain he saw a move to Atletico Madrid fall through and has not played for Villarreal, currently second in La Liga, since.

Despite of all this, he has still featured consistently for his national team during this period, and has scored four goals so far in Argentina's World Cup qualifying campaign.

Certainly for me, its all good to know that finally our midfield lynchpin will get to play regular football to maintain his good form but there are things that I keep asking myself over and over again.Is it because other were simply blind to notice the great talent and gift that ROMAN possess or is it because he just doesn’t have what it takes to play in Europe?

After all this is the same player who I remember watching when I was only 17 dazzling everyone with his sorcery on the ball right here in my own backyard in Malaysia. I knew from that on this is going to be something special in the years to come.

Anyway I guess you just can’t complain too much that’s all. Good luck ROMAN to the future and take us all the way to glory in 2010.

Viva Roman ! Viva Boca ! So Roman moves back to Boca at the same time I move to Mexico City. Mal freakin' suerte for me ! That said, I did a small tour of a part of DF today and watched Carlitos in an argentine bar named "La Mano del Che" !!!!

Why should you be surprised? Last season Riquleme played horribly for Villareal, and the team was struggling in the relegation zone. Villareal decided to dump him and then team started a revolution ever since. They won all 8 last La Liga matches and finished 5th in the table. This season they play wonderful soccer, and now ranked 2nd - in front of Barcelona! The mere fact is that even a small club like Villareal plays much better without Riquleme, combining the fact he played so awful for Barcelona when he first went to Europe, which team do you think will be remotely intersted in him?

By the way, do you know how much Riquleme earns? 4M euro post-tax, which is at least five times more than the highest paid players playing in Argentina.

Villareal decided to dump him a long time ago, and spent the whole year trying to get rid of him. The only reason Riquleme did not play for Boca this season is Boca simply could not afford his salary, which is more than the rest of the team combined. He sit in the Villareal bench just for the sake of money.

I am not blaming him for greedy or anything, just your guys seem to be surprised that he is not wanted by anybody in the world except Boca, who made a tremendous sacrifice to meet his huge salary needs.

Thanks for your quote on RIQUELME. I don’t think the argument here is how much that player earns or this player spends.

From your statement sounds like you are avid supporter of the Yellow Submarine. But I will agree about Villareal’s progress without him on the team.

Please bear in mind that the clubs successful years were between 2004-2006 (among which was reaching the Champions League semi-final) and ROMAN was the club main engine at that time. I’m surprise that you never mentioned anything about that.

Since you brought up about his unsuccessful time in Barcelona well perhaps you are not aware about the whole situation.

The Barca president then Joan GASPART brought ROMAN just to please the ever-demanding supporter of the Nou Camp after the departure of RIVALDO. At the same time the new coach then, Louis Van GAAL was romp in to take charge of the team had no interest in him from the beginning itself.

Plus he was also in the pecking order behind players like Luis ENRIQUE and Marc OVERMARS.

The whole situation was a no win situation for ROMAN so therefore please understand the circumstances surrounding him during his time at Barca.

Thanks your comment Percyzvomuya!!! I feel very happy to know that there are people out there who remember REDONDO. He was simply out standing and I only wish he more than 29 caps to his name for Argentina. Nevertheless he is still one of mine all time favourites

"Argentina will start next year playing in February, with Portugal and Northern Ireland. Order on March 26 confirmed a friendly with Mexico in Dubai and, in May, the selected face a pair of commitments against two successive European powers: 24 against Germany in Madrid and 28 against Italy in Milan, although the latter remains to be officially confirmed.

In June, the selected travel to the United States to deal with the local recruitment and against Poland and the 28 August pactó a match with Belarus in Minsk, the capital of that country. Basile and his players rest three months of friendlies and not of Eliminatorias- to finally close 2008 playing on November 9 against Spain in Madrid or Seville. "

Villareal struggled last season because Riquelme was out of form and still struggled with chronic back injuries wich plagued him throughout the entire 05/06 season. Combine that with his mother's illness and Pellegrini's genious stroke of adding another playmaker to the team (effectively forcing Riquelme to the flanks, a position that isn't his best to say the least) and this was just a disaster waiting to happen.

And yes Pellegrini has made an effective (albeit very boring) team this season with players like Pires and Rossi. But without the exploits made by Riquelme and Forlan those players would never have came there in the first place. So if you're going to make claims that Villareal is better off without Riquelme at least get these facts straight.

No, I am NOT a Villareal fan. I am a Barcelona and Messi fan. I watched La Liga week after week so I know how Villear play, year after year.

The best time Villareal has is NOT 2004-06, it is THIS season. They finally started to look like a serious title contender, and they even top Barca for No 2! They played brilliantly ever since they dumped Riquelme. Please remember, with him on squad (even though he didn't play) Barca squshed Villareal 4-0, with him gone Vallreal beat Barca 2-0, which started the downfall of Barca last season. This season Villareal beat Barca, Valencia, and Athletic Madrid in hugely entertaining matchs. It hurt as a Barca fun, but I recognize good team when I see one.

I know everything you talked about Riquleme's experience in Barca - the simple truth is that he didn't play well. If he plays like Ronaldinho or Messi, will he ever be dumped, no matter who is coach? Remember, Villareal has him on sale for a total year, and NOBODY in Europe wants him, I am sorry but he is simply NOT good enough to play in Europe.

As a messi fan, I feel bad about Messi's performance in the national team. Occasionally he showed magic, but he doesn't even play half as good as he played for Barca.

Why? Because soccer is a team sport, and little Leo simply doesn't get the kind of support he gets from Barca. I know it is unfair to blame it entirely on Riquelme, but Riquleme's slowness and Messi's quickness is like ice and fire - they simply don't co-exist. It is frustrating to see them play together, especially against strong opponents like Brazil.

Riqulem has been the nuclears of the national team for almost three years now. And he simply played horribly against any strong teams. Yes, he did played well in the home qualification game against Brazil, and that's it. Brazil revenged on their home game and went on to beat Riquleme-led Argentina three times in neutral soil, two cup finals and a friendly, all with 3 goals margin, and Riquleme played his favorite disappearing game in the crucial moments.

In the world cup, yes, Argentina played well against weak teams like Servia, then struggled horribly when they met a second-rated Mexico, and then was sensationally dumped out when they met the first strong European team Germany. Actually Argentina failed beat any European teams in elimination phase in 20 years. With Riquleme under helme, I can't see a hope that this will trend will even change.

Jeez, can't you Riquelme haters get your own blog ? I think Riquelme haters need some sort of equivalent of Alcoholics Anonymous. Try one day at a time to control your desire to say something negative or false about Roman. I know it will be tough, but with willpower you can do it !!

well johnny, I guess only Roman can prove them wrong...wonder what all he needs to do to change their opinion though:(

"I know everything you talked about Riquleme's experience in Barca - the simple truth is that he didn't play well. If he plays like Ronaldinho or Messi, will he ever be dumped, no matter who is coach?"

I don't know how to answer that argument because its so ridiculous. Luis Van gal aparantly had gifted him a barcelona kids jercie when his first kid was born and reportedly kidded that "let your kid wear one coz u may not get to wear one" with such attitude from a coach do you expect him to play or getting played in a team? every body knows Van Gaaals second spell with Barcelona was such a disaster.

Anyways you cant change opinios but for those who are interested and have an open mind go to goal. com community and there is a discussion on riquelme. May be you will get enlightened. If you are still not convinced we are sorry, I understand we all dont see the beautiful game the same way....I understand.

Thanks for your further and constructive argument about ROMAN. Before I go into this further, it still early in the season for your to judge Villareal season as successful. That we’ll just have to wait and see.

About ROMAN, it is expected to bridge the gap among fans that have different opinions about him. It’s all understood.

But in the end, he is the player that COCO has entrusted and as fans we need to stand behind our team rather than going against it.

To me his time in Barca and Villareal are all in the past, it is the future that I’m concern of.

It is ironic that all the news about a Villareal side playing some of its best ever football is about the one man who isn’t playing: Juan Roman Riquelme. It is even more ironic that this is a man who has always been branded a choker – most notably after missing a penalty in Villareal’s Champions League semi final loss to Arsenal – yet it is now without him that Villareal are well and truly blowing their own chances of reaching new levels of success. Just look at how they were humiliated against Zargoza and failed under pressure against Almeria.

Whatever, Romy looked genuinely happy last night when he was handed his #10 shirt again. I hope he continues to be happy like that. Because whether you like it or not, he is going to play at the next world cup.

John, I want to let you know that I enjoy your blog very much. I visited it regularly (made a bookmark) and enjoy it thoroughly.

Roman fans, I have no intention of starting a debate here. I am telling you the simple truth - Villareal had him on sale for a whole year, and NOBODY in Europe wanted him. If you think the whole Europe is stupid and you are the only person in the world to be smart, feel free to do so.

For the teams that badmouths Villareal, good luck. Chances are Villareal is going to continue blooming while your Roman fans curse the teams all the way you want. The bad team is ranking 2 in La Liga, which they never maganged to do before. If they happen to win La Liga at the end of the season, I would like to see your face.

Nancy-with respect-how can you believe that no teams in Europe wanted him ? There seemed to be a different report every week about teams inquiring about him, in Italy, Spain and England. And some of those reports confirmed by management officials representing those clubs. Now, why he never went to any of those clubs is certainly another topic, but sure, there was interest. Cheers.

Villareal has him on sale for the whole year, and NOBODY made an offer, or he would have been sold a long time ago. Sure, there might be interest, if you believe what media says, he is hotly pursued by Inter, Man Utd, and Real Madrid. Haha! Again, I am not a Villareal fan and Riquleme's situation doesn't really interest him. As a La Liga fan I simply enjoy this Villaral team who play so much better without Riquleme, even beating my beloved Barca and Messi! End of discussion on an European football outcast.

Roman is not greedy. He will play a year free for Boca. He told Villarreal (I think this team name spelled with 2 r) they don't have to pay the money they owed him for the period he's frozen out (and now it's Diego you-know-who that said you can't do that boy!).